Ibanez or Fender?
 

?

Which models?

Ibanez

!

Ibanez, hands down. Fender is tired. Ibanez has more variety. Fender has "classic" sound... which is tired.

IBTL!

Ibanez. I liked a Fender jazz bass, but it was about $1500 and only felt as good as a $300 Ibanez.

Why not both?

It depends what you like.
Fender has that Fender kind of sound, look and feel,
and the Ibanez is more reminiscent of an Ibanez.

I'd go for both. Ibanez has some DAMN good basses that I wouldn't pass up, but my fender "squier series" jazz is my old standby.

I can't feel the difference between cheap Ibanez necks and expensive ones, so I wouldn't get a midrange Ibanez. I would either get a cheap one and put in my own electronics, or get a high end one that comes with Nordstrands. I don't care for the Bart MK1s myself.

Fender. I've tried out a lot of Ibanez stuff and haven't liked anything. The artcores look cool but sound weak to me. Some others sound ok but have neither the feel nor look that I like. It's subjective of course, but I've never really thought of Ibanez as being in the same league as Fender and other big names. YMMV, IMHO, etc.

I've never EVER gotten a call for a session whereby the person on the other end of the phone says, "Do you play an Ibanez?"

I prefer Ibbys.... feel and sound.

While I have quite a few Ibanez basses and like them, I have to say a good Fender bass has a different feel and sound that I've yet to see any Ibanez bass duplicate. So, best answer I can give is, have both. Can't compare the two really.
One thing I have to add, is that the quality of Ibanez basses are across the board, you may have two of the same model and one will be fine, the other may be a blatant lemon. That's my latest problem I have to deal with in regards to my two latest purchases of two Ibanez basses. lol.

Warmoth or Carvin

The good folks at Ibanez were super dicky to me just for calling them 20 years ago, and nothing they have made since has impressed me enough to forgive and forget.

Fender. Not even close for me.

Never played an Ibanez, so I don't know what they're like, but I'd certainly be willing to give them a shot.
Having said that, as it is now, I'd rather go with a known (to me) quantity, and that would be Fender/Squier.

Really? Care to elaborate?

Exactly
 

I once used to record with my ubiquitous (back in those days) Ibanez Sr405, and I was very comfortable with it: needless to say studio engineer was very good friend of mine, at the start of his career and, bein' raised together, he perfctly knew how to capture nuances of my playin' (both Killin' Joke fans back then) even if playin' regularly tuned, with a pick, thru an electronic processor, and with an all active bass

Whenever I eventually got call for someone else's recordin' material, I understood what Fender's (Jazzes) were there for...

That's the sound each and every studio engineer has in his head and looks for, while I switched to Jazzes for obvious neck width reason.

Now I have many of the basses I back in the day only could dream of, and I love Ibanezes (especially Atks, especially playin' live) yet no more Soundgears here around.

Cheers,
Wallace

Ibanez hands down!